SEAL FISHERIES 727 



and the meal is automatically fed to a mechanical press or expeller and over a 

 magnetized belt. This produces from 800 to 1,000 pounds of pressed cracklings 

 per hour. From the expeller the dried meal goes first to a cooling room, then to a 

 hammer mill where it is pulverized, after which it is sacked. The carcass oil is 

 pumped from the expeller to settling tanks prior to barreling. Blubber is rendered 

 separately from the carcasses, and blubber oil usually commands a higher market 

 price than carcass oil. The laboratory analyses of fur-seal oil and fur-seal meal 

 produced in 1949 are shown in Table 160 (p. 726). 



Hair Seals 



Hair seals are widely distributed, but occur in sufficient numbers to support 

 important fisheries in only a relatively few well-defined localities. They include the 

 waters along the west coast of Greenland, the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador, 

 and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Jan Mayen Island and adjacent waters, Novaya 

 Zemlya Island and adjacent waters, and the White Sea. The Gaspian Sea also 

 supports a hair-seal fishery. Small isolated groups of hair seals, of local importance 

 only, are found along both coasts of the United States, around the British Isles, 

 among the islands of the south seas, along both coasts of South America, and 

 in Alaskan and Siberian waters. The species of chief importance commercially are 

 the harp seal (Phoea groenlandica) , the hood seal (Ctjstophora cristata) , the har- 

 bor seal (P. vituJina), and the Gaspian seal (P. caspica) . The ringed seal (P. jae- 

 tida) and the gray seal {Halichaerus gnjpus) also are taken. The harp seal, which 

 gets its name from dark markings on its back which resemble a harp, is the species 

 of greatest commercial importance, both in number of animals captured and value. 

 In years of normal operation the number of harps killed has equalled or exceeded 

 that of all other species combined. It is the seal on which the Newfoundland, 

 Greenland, and Arctic fisheries depend. 



The once extensive hair-seal fishery of the South Atlantic, South Pacific, and 

 Antarctic regions was primarily for the capture and utilization of the elephant seal 

 or sea elephant, although some sea lions were also taken. This fishery, prosecuted 

 in conjunction with whaling and fur sealing, was chiefly for the oil. Elephant 

 seals were abundant on many of the islands ofiF the southern coasts of South 

 America, Patagonia, the Falkland Islands, the South Shetlands, the South Georgian 

 Islands, and Crozet and Kerguelen Islands, where important fur-seal colonies ex- 

 isted. The slaughter of these animals in the early years of sealing was uncontrolled, 

 and the inevitable result has been extermination in many places. This fishery now 

 has been virtually abandoned, and where this species has been protected, it is 

 showing evidence of recovery. 



The Newfoundland hair-seal fishery is the most important in the world. Be- 

 cause of economic difficulties besetting the industry as well as decimation of the seal 

 herds this fishery has shown evidence of failing. In 1855, 400 vessels and 13,000 

 men were engaged in this fishery and took a total of more than half a million seals. 

 Prior to that time there had been a gradual change in the method of sealing, from 

 exclusively shore operations employing nets to ice skiffs, small schooners, brigs, 

 brigantines, and barks, successively. After 1855 the decline in sailing vessels com- 

 menced, and 25 years later they were a thing of the past. Steamers appeared 

 in the fishery in 1863, and by 1906, 25 steamers were engaged, furnishing employ- 

 ment to more than 4,000 men. The number since then has gradually declined, and 



